A Poem from Lisa Kosow
Thank you to Alan for turning us on to the poetry of Lisa Kosow. The poem below was published in the Innisfree Poetry Journal. Lisa says this poem is an example of ekphrastic poetry, poetry inspired by visual art. Edward Hopper's "7:00 AM," painted in 1948, is now in the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC.
Lisa's work has appeared in Gargoyle, Connecticut River Review, WordWrights, Potpourri, The Plastic Tower, Perceptions, the first issue of Innisfree, and the anthology CABIN FEVER. In 1995, her chapbook, DAWN IS MOVING, was published by D.C.'s Argonne Hotel Press. Lisa lives in Takoma Park, MD where they just abolished the sale of small plastic bottles or something like that.
EDWARD HOPPER, 7:00 AM
There's no breaking this stillness.
It has something solid about it,
in the railway station and the cafe
where a solitary figure stares off,
never toward the future, always
the past. Or it's the early hour
when shadows fall at the precise angle
that captures a place
at its most melancholy.
There's no revolution going on
here, no surreal lion's head
floating in a blinding blue sky
or cracked eggs in the rust red desert,
no cubist deconstruction
of human bodies twisting
in a fragmented dance of bone and flesh.
No paint is ever splattered on the floor.
There's no music in it, and no movement.
Just a small town shop window
pristine white at 7:00 AM
before industry and passion have awakened, sad yet reassuring. You felt the way I did this morning.
The InnisFree Poetry Journal
|